Pierce Healy is a jeweller and engraver who creates intricately engraved jewellery and objects drawing on traditions of mark making, storytelling and adornment. His work centres on illustrative hand engraving and the interplay of texture and light, using intaglio mark-making techniques to develop intricate and complex compositions. Each piece is made without a fixed plan, developing through an experimental process guided by curiosity, where one work informs the next.
Healy is interested in the synergy between the hands, head and heart while making. His engravings reflect both natural landscapes and the landscape of the everyday. Drawing on influences including walking, drawing, music, comics and storytelling, his work combines observational detail with illustrative mark making and often incorporates subversive humour. He is interested in the capacity of jewellery to embody stories and facilitate storytelling. Healy considers jewellery as a “second skin”, or everyday armour. When worn, these objects take on additional meaning, accumulating scratches, dings and traces of the wearer’s experience over time. His work acts as a critique of contemporary life and the history of jewellery, using visual incongruities to question common values and ideas of what is valuable. His practice has been informed by collaboration, artist residencies and teaching in Ireland, the United States and Sweden.
Pierce Healy applied for a Golden Fleece Award to establish a dedicated jewellery studio and teaching space in Sligo, supporting the development of a purpose-built workshop equipped with professional tools and enabling the continuation of his practice alongside teaching and community engagement.
